GTA 6 leak: Arion Kurtaj goes on trial in London on 9 November

The trial of Arion Kurtaj, the young British hacker behind the September 2022 GTA 6 leak, will open on 9 November at Woolwich Crown Court in London, ten days before the game launches. The date comes from Notebookcheck, which says GTAVice.net spotted it in a LinkedIn post by Red Lion Chambers, the firm representing the defendant.

Daniel Jasner here: I'm no lawyer, so I'll stick to what is written.

What the post says

According to Notebookcheck, Red Lion Chambers states the trial is due to start on 9 November. A judge had previously ruled Kurtaj unfit to stand trial over the intrusion, which explains the long delay. The outlet adds that, barring a postponement, a court will finally rule on guilt or innocence.

A four-year-old case

The September 2022 attack made headlines: per Notebookcheck, the hacker worked from a hotel room with a smartphone and an Amazon Fire Stick while on bail for earlier offences. Gameplay videos from an early build circulated before the first official trailer in late 2023. Kurtaj, tied to Lapsus$, claimed to have obtained the source code, but no build of the game ever surfaced online. He is also accused over attacks on other companies, including Nvidia and Uber, the outlet says.

In 2023 we covered the order to detain him in a secure hospital. Notebookcheck says he was apparently moved to prison in 2026, without further detail.

A busy legal calendar

The timing is awkward for Rockstar. The studio already faces Cyberleek's leaks, the arrest of an alleged ShinyHunters member in the United States and the Glasgow tribunal hearing over the layoffs. The outlet notes these are distractions the publisher hoped to avoid ahead of launch.

Why it matters

For players, nothing changes: the game still launches on 19 November 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and the two dates are linked only by calendar coincidence. For Rockstar, the trial reopens a case the studio put at 5 million dollars in 2023, just before the final stretch. Whether the hearing goes ahead is another matter, as a postponement would hardly be surprising. The countdown is on the release page.

Sources notebookcheck.biz

By Daniel Jasner · VI Countdown newsroom, OKALAM Studio